Management Consulting in the Age of AI: Essential Skills for Success
Among all the white-collar jobs threatened by AI, management consulting—a purely idea-based occupation that relies heavily on analytical and problem-solving skills—sits near the front of displacement fears. As reasoning LLMs and AI agents take on many junior-level tasks faster and more accurately, major firms like McKinsey, Accenture, and the “Big Four” are cutting jobs and rethinking how they hire. According to a report by McKinsey & Company, the consulting industry is undergoing a significant transformation, driven by advances in AI and automation.
That doesn’t necessarily mean consulting is disappearing. For college graduates and young professionals who still aspire to the field, it simply means a different set of skills and qualities will be required to succeed. On Tuesday (Jan. 6), Bob Sternfels, McKinsey & Company’s board chair and global managing partner—the firm’s top role—shared those criteria during a talk at CES 2026. Sternfels emphasized that while AI is changing the nature of work in consulting, there are still essential skills that will continue to matter in an AI-infused world.
Key Skills for Success in the AI Era
Sternfels highlighted three skills that will continue to matter in an AI-infused world:
- Aspire: Setting the right goals and inspiring others to believe in them—essentially leadership and direction-setting. As Sternfels noted, “The ability to inspire and motivate others is critical in a world where AI is increasingly capable of performing routine tasks.”
- Judgment: The ability to distinguish right from wrong and to prioritize effectively. “AI models don’t know right or wrong. Humans need to set the right parameters, whether based on a company’s values or societal norms,” Sternfels said. This skill is particularly important in consulting, where professionals must navigate complex ethical dilemmas and make decisions that impact clients and stakeholders.
- Creativity: A recurring theme among leaders across industries. AI is still built on “inference models,” Sternfels said, and the ability to generate new ideas from nothing remains a fundamentally human skill that machines won’t replace anytime soon. As General Catalyst CEO Hemant Taneja noted, “Learning how to ask the right questions and solving hard problems are very different mindsets. It’s about curiosity and kind of back to being kids.”
For decades, the consulting world was heavily defined by pedigree. But in the AI era, “where you went to school matters a lot less,” Sternfels said. In tech, he noted, hiring increasingly focuses on signals of capability rather than credentials—“not what university you graduated from, but what your GitHub profile looks like. That means a wider set of people can enter the workforce with different pathways.” This shift towards skills-based hiring has significant implications for the future of work in consulting.
McKinsey recently made headlines for cutting hundreds of back-office jobs as AI automates parts of its operations. Putting a specific number on the impact for the first time, Sternfels said the firm is reducing non-client-facing headcount by 25 percent while seeing a 10 percent productivity gain from AI. However, the firm is also increasing its client-facing staff by 25 percent, which amounts to an “unprecedented number of new hires, because the work is changing.”
The Learning Gap
However, one question that the consulting industry has yet to find a satisfactory answer to is how to train and develop talent in the AI era. And elite universities don’t seem to be preparing students for it, either. Entry-level consultants have traditionally spent significant time reading documents and performing repetitive work. Such grunt work was not only part of the workflow but also the primary way junior employees learned and progressed. As those tasks become easier to automate, new hires risk losing opportunities to build skills, judgment, and character.
“There’s a massive gap in resilience,” Sternfels said. “You’re gonna get knocked out. The question is: do you get back up? And how do you get back up? I think the educational system today doesn’t necessarily build individual capability in resilience.” This highlights the need for consulting firms and educational institutions to adapt their training programs to focus on developing the skills and qualities that will be essential in the AI era.
According to Sternfels, the key to success in the AI era is not just about adopting new technologies, but also about developing the skills and mindset necessary to work effectively with AI. As the consulting industry continues to evolve, it is essential for professionals to stay up-to-date with the latest trends and developments in AI and to develop the skills and expertise necessary to succeed in this new landscape. For more information on the future of management consulting in the age of AI, read the full article Here.
Image Source: observer.com
